nascar champion’s week: day three with the awards ceremony

Welcome to The Fast and the Fabulous! This was a blog based on one woman's thoughts, opinions and experiences involving NASCAR and IndyCar. As of February 20, 2015 this blog is no longer active. Find out why & browse the archives by clicking here.

Friday, December 3rd was the day of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Awards Ceremony & Banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas.

That morning I went over to the Wynn to pick up my ticket for the night and to partake in the free breakfast being served in the Sprint Lounge. I got my ticket, breakfast was delicious, best orange juice I’ve ever had, and I got to overhear some dudes talking about what Clint Bowyer was up to the night before. Nothing crazy, he just stayed up late or something.

Sprint was also giving everyone special picture frames to hold a commemorative “red carpet” picture of themselves that would be taken in the two hours before the ceremony started that night. I was really excited about that because it meant that I didn’t have to worry about taking a photo of myself to show you guys.

I went back to my hotel and tried to kill some time, which proved to be harder than you’d think. I couldn’t shop because the stores inside The Crystals were well beyond my price range I didn’t even feel right “just looking.” You know a place is expensive when just looking at stuff isn’t even fun, it’s so much better when a place is relatively within reach. So then I decided to play penny slots but that was lame because I won NOTHING.

I went back to my room and watched an episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Finally it was time to go down to the The Salon at Aria and have my makeup done. My makeup artist, Mo, was super nice and awesome. When I told her I wanted to do a bold red lip and basic black lined eyes she totally got it (think classic Marilyn Monroe) and gave me props for going big with the red lips. I cannot tell a lie, I looked pretty damn good. I loved that style of makeup and it couldn’t have come out any better.

My dress for the evening was an all black dress from BCBGMaxAzria, a dress I scored for only $63 total during the Black Friday-Post Thanksgiving weekend. That was the perfect amount of money to spend on a dress that I’d likely never get to wear anywhere else. I loved it.

There were a couple things I wanted to make sure I did differently this year and getting to the red carpet early for arrivals was one of them. I got to the Wynn on time and just as I walked through the front doors I realized I had forgotten my media credentials. I had my ticket for the banquet but I needed the media credentials in order to take pictures as people walked the red carpet. I found a NASCAR media person that knew me and she got me on the red carpet but told me not to move. And I didn’t.

But that meant that I couldn’t leave to go take my “red carpet” photo with the pro photographer in the Sprint Lounge. So I didn’t get it. One of the photographers I was standing with took a photo of me with my cell phone but my eyes are closed in it and I looked lame, so I’m not sharing it with you.

If you follow me on Twitter you saw my shots of drivers and their wives as they walked the carpet and spoke to the media outlets on hand. Was I supposed to know that Katie Kenseth was pregnant again? She’s like really pregnant, maybe 7 months? I suck at figuring those things out. Anyway, she still looked beautiful. I’d say even better than some of the non-pregnant wives.

I heard gossip about Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson staying up the night before until 4 or 5 in the morning gambling in the Wynn casino. I also heard that Dale Earnhardt Jr was still in town after accepting his Most Popular Driver award the day before, but I didn’t see him that night.

When Rascal Flatts came down the press line I wanted to jump the imaginary line keeping us held back from them and tell them how much I loved them. I really, really, really, wanted to talk to them. But I had nothing legitimate to talk to them about or ask them. I just wanted to tell them I loved their music and how much it meant to me.

Eventually the clock counted down to 15 minutes before the show was to start and I decided I needed to get to my table. Sitting next to me was Mike Smith, the political and stock car racing cartoonist from The Las Vegas Sun. Mike was really fun to talk to talk to and you should check out his work.

My favorite moments of the night were Clint Bowyer’s introduction by his fellow Chase drivers (especially the Rodney Dangerfield comment), Martina McBride’s powerful and totally standing ovation-worthy performance of “America The Beautiful,” the jaw-dropping acrobatic performance by the cast of Viva ELVIS (my jaw really did drop, I thought the guy was going to drop the girl at any moment), Colbie Caillat’s performance (because I just like her) and the delicious cranberry roll I ate (I wish they sold that somewhere).

Post awards ceremony, I headed straight to Tryst, the nightclub inside the Wynn, where I assumed the after-party was to take place. This was another one of those things I wanted to make sure I did differently. Last year, I went back to my hotel, changed clothes and went to the after-party where I couldn’t get near the bar and all the seats were taken. I figured I’d get there early this year so I made sure I had an excellent spot to people watch. What I failed to notice, or maybe I just ignored, was that on the card we were given in our ticket envelope was that it just had the awards ceremony logo and the words “Complimentary Pass.”

When I got to Tryst there was only a small group standing outside of it’s entrance. I went up to the guys at the door and they said they opened at 10:30pm, it was only 10pm at that point. So I hung around. I saw the head of PR for Infineon Raceway and we chatted for a bit. I can’t remember how it happened that someone from his group, the head of PR for Las Vegas Motor Speedway talked to the general manager of Tryst. The guy said that the deal was for everyone to just get passes, free entry to the club. There was no free food, no free drinks. We were all confused because we just assumed it would be the same as last year, but it wasn’t. The guy from LVMS called one of his contacts, I don’t know who it was, but basically they said that neither Sprint or NASCAR wanted to pay for an after-party this year.

Which was totally disappointing to me because I had zero desire to pay $20 for a drink. I went back to my hotel and got a latte from Starbucks instead.

Here’s an interesting story that happened the next day on my way to the airport. When I got in to my taxi the driver seemed awfully familiar. Turns out he was the exact same taxi driver that took me to the airport the last time I was in Las Vegas in October of this year. How crazy is it that I got the SAME driver? There are a million different cabbies in Vegas and I got the same guy. Totally crazy. It was a good thing though because he was a very nice guy and we chatted about NASCAR, because he’s a fan, and how he’d taken Jimmie Johnson’s photographer to the Bellagio that week.

So that’s it, that’s the whole trip. I’ll be working on getting the driver interviews posted this week. Stay tuned.

Krista Voda and Kenny Wallace practice their red carpet show for SPEED (credit: The Fast and the Fabulous)

NASCAR driver Carl Edwards and his wife Kate arrive at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth and his wife Katie attend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Greg Biffle arrives with his wife Nicole at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon and his wife Ingrid Vandebosch attend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Kevin Conway and his girlfriend Angel Taber attend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (credit: The Fast and the Fabulous)

Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson and his wife Chandra arrive at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick arrives with his wife DeLana at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Jeff Burton arrives with his wife Kim at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Kurt Busch arrives with his wife Eva at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer arrives with his girlfriend Lorra Podsiadlo at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Just Denny? What happened to Jordan?

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin attends the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

NASCAR driver Tony Stewart attends the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Singer Colbie Caillat attends the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Joe Don Rooney, Jay DeMarcus and Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts attend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series awards banquet at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on December 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images for NASCAR)

thank you for all of your coverage!! what an awesome experience this must have been!!
did you know the edwards are expecting again?! i just read that last night!! how awesome for them!! i love to hear about expanding nascar families! puts a smile on my face!
i am sure you looked awesome at the ceremony and i hope you had a blast!
*